The waves take you home A novel

María Alejandra Barrios Vélez

Book - 2024

In this heartfelt story about how the places we run from hold the answers to our deepest challenges, the death of her grandmother brings a young woman home, where she must face the past in order to become the heir of not just the family restaurant, but her own destiny. Violeta Sanoguera had always done what she was told. She left the man she loved in Colombia in pursuit of a better life for herself and because her mother and grandmother didn't approve of him. Chasing dreams of education and art in New York City, and with a new love, twenty-eight-year-old Violeta establishes a new life for herself, on her terms. But when her grandmother suddenly dies, everything changes. After years of being on her own in NYC, Violeta finds herself on a... plane back to Colombia, accompanied at all times by the ghost of her grandmother who is sending her messages and signs, to find she is the heir of the failing family restaurant, the very one Abuela told her to run from in the first place. The journey leads her to rediscover her home, her grandmother, and even the flame of an old love.

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Subjects
Genres
Magic realist fiction
ghost stories
Domestic fiction
Romance fiction
Ghost stories
Published
Seattle : Lake Union Publishing [2024]
Language
English
Main Author
María Alejandra Barrios Vélez (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
318 pages ; 23 cm
ISBN
9781662513954
9781662513947
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Barrios Veléz offers a heartfelt and deeply personal debut novel. Violeta, or Vi, is a skilled illustrator who, on the insistence of her abuela, has made a life for herself in New York City, walking away from her home country, her family, her memories, and the restaurant her abuela runs. But when her abuela dies unexpectedly and leaves the restaurant just as unexpectedly to her granddaughter, Vi realizes that going back home is about more than saving the building--it's about regaining her heritage, her family, and herself. The Waves Take You Home is a beautiful homage to the values, traditions, and way of life of a small town and its families in Colombia. Vi struggles mightily with understanding what her abuela wanted for her and continually grapples with what her family needs from her and the ability to choose a life for herself. In the end, Barrios Veléz gives us a tender yet strength-filled novel about what it means to find balance.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.